12 December 1994
 
Dear Colleague,
 
In the frame of a European Union project entitled "Genetic bank
systems and guidelines", to be carried out during 1994 and 1995,
one of our goals is to identify the institutions, laboratories,
and individual scientists involved in the creation, management
and utilization of tissue collections in view of studies in
Evolutionary Biology and Systematics.
 
The information gathered through the questionnaire here joined
will be used to produce a list of tissue collections existing in
Europe and to prepare a report to the EU. This report will
describe the situation regarding the state and organization of
tissue collections and will examine the possibility of the
creation of a European computer network among the institutions
dealing with the above mentioned activities. We are also
interested in identifying foreign tissue collections holding
materials from Europe.
 
The list as well as other reports on the progress of this project
will be distributed among those correspondents who express
interest in receiving the information and/or are willing to
cooperate to the realization of the project. Please feel free to
make copies of this questionnaire and distribute among those
institutions and individuals who may be interested in receiving
this information.
 
Taking into account the rather limited time we have to accomplish
this task, we ask you to answer this questionnaire no later than
February 15, 1995.
 
Please, feel free to contact us for any additional information.
 
Dr. Vitaly Volobouev, Coordinator
Institut Curie, Section de Biologie
26, rue d'Ulm, 75231 Paris Cedex 05
France
tel.: 33 1 40516632   Fax.: 33 1 40516674
 
You may send your answers through electronic mail or by regular
mail. In the first case, please write "genetic questionnaire" on
the subject line and send it to the following address:
 
[log in to unmask]
 
If you send the questionnaire by regular mail, please send your
letter to:
 
Dr. Gonzalo Perez-Suarez
Dpto. de Biologia Animal
Universidad de Alcala de Henares
28871 Alcala de Henares, Madrid
Spain
 
Thank you very much for your cooperation
 
GENETIC QUESTIONNAIRE
 
1.- Contact person
Last name                            First name
Institution
Department
Street
City/Province/State
Post Code                      Country
Phone                          Fax
e-mail
 
2.- Material included in your tissue collection
a. Cryopreserved cultured cells
     a.1 Normal
     a.2 Transformed
b. Cryopreserved tissues
c. Directly frozen tissues
d. Tissues in alcohol
e. Others (nucleic acids, blood/serum, antiserum, ancient DNA
   (Paleontology), type specimens (morphological collections,
   etc)
 
 
3. If you are dealing with cryopreserved alive cells and tissues,
do you carry out the quality control? (if yes please specify)
 
 
4.- Use of your tissue collection
a. Molecular Systematics
b. Cytogenetics
c. Population biology
d. Cytotoxicology
e. Cryobiology
f. Conservation Biology
g. Environmental monitoring
h. Other (please specify)
 
 
4.- Size of your tissue collection
a. Number of samples
b. Number of specimens
c. Number of species
 
6.- Taxonomic groups represented in your tissue collection
a. Mammals
b. Birds
c. Reptiles
d. Amphibians
e. Fishes
f. Arthropods
g. Other invertebrates (please specify)
h. Other (please specify)
 
 
7.- Geographic regions represented
a. Europe
b. Asia
c. Africa
d. Australia
e. N. America
f. S. America
g. other
 
 
8.- Source of material
a. Your own field work
b. Zoological gardens
c. Other scientists or collections
d. Institutional mission
e. Commercial sources
f. Other (please specify)
 
 
9. In your opinion, what is the degree of accuracy of the
taxonomic identification in your tissue collection?.
a. High (all samples allocated to a species/subspecies name)
b. Normal (some samples not identified at the species level)
c. Low
d. Irregular
d. Other (precise)
 
 
10. Where the majority of your voucher specimens (if any) are
kept?
 
 
11. Collection management
a. Manual
b. Computerized
     b.1. Please precise software and system (PC, Apple, Unix,
          Vax...)
 
 
12.- Source of financial support
a. Individual research grants
b. Institutional funds
     b.1 National/State
     b.2 University
c. Private funds
d. Other (please specify)
 
 
13. Are you integrated in a computer network?. If yes, what kind
of network?
 
 
14. Would you like to be integrated in a European network in
order to gain access to other collections for exchange and
collaboration? (please answer yes or no)
 
 
15. Is the creation of a network in your opinion necessary to
improve scientific cooperation? (please answer yes or no)
 
 
16. Would you like to receive a free copy of the list of tissue
collections in Europe and be informed on further progress of the
project? (please answer yes or no)
 
 
 
17. Do you know about similar collections who should be
integrated in a European Union Gene Banking Programme?. If yes,
could you make available this information to them or send to us
their names and addresses now?
 
Contact person:
Address:
Phone:
Fax:
e-mail:
 
Contact person:
Address:
Phone:
Fax:
e-mail:
 
(continue here if necessary)
 
Thank you once more for your cooperation.